I Love You, Jemima V 2

One: Cinderella

One

Cinderella

I stepped out of my Lekki apartment's walk-in closet into the bathroom and thought to briefly access my outfit that evening.

'200k Lanre Da Silva Ajayi floral dress; check!' I gave a half twirl as I cross-checked the fit of my new dress. It was a little more than perfect.

'$600 Calvin Klein retro clutch; check!' I peeped at the vintage arm candy and approved immediately of how it accentuated the dress.

'$2450 Red bottoms Manolo Blahnik; double-check!' I squealed as I rose my feet slightly above the knee, high-school style to check the gift from one of my wealthy white investors out and smiled as the memories of him handing me the shoebox filled my head, but the smile didn't last for long as memories of him also pulling my hair and ripping my lingerie apart at the back of one of my Mainland branches, came flooding in.

I shook it off and immediately began to cross-check my red lipstick.

'Puhfect!' I smiled at my reflection before stepping out of the penthouse and giving a weak smile at the handsome chauffeur who pulled the door open for me and sometimes, more than the door; when I got disappointed and rescheduling texts from potential bedmates.

"The Radison Blu," I said to him without looking up from my phone.

"Yes ma'am" he nodded from the driver's seat and our eyes connected in the car mirror but just for a second.

'Gosh! You really need to get a damned grip of yourself!' I thought to myself before tapping on the unopened message from Charles on my WhatsApp messenger.

Charlie

I'll be at the private penthouse suite. Please, Jemima, come this time for the love of God.

I found myself chuckling as I responded to his text and I couldn't help but laugh at myself at the numerous ways in which I always ran out on him, like 2 months ago when I saw him for the first time. I was like someone who'd seen a ghost. I ran into my car and yelled at the driver to speed up or get fired.

He managed to get my number after that and wouldn't stop calling until I finally grew nervous to set up a date with him; I ran off when I got to the restaurant and I won't forget the look of surprise mixed with confusion on his face when he saw me run from the inside of the restaurant; or how he pushed his mouth open while waiting for me with tickets at the cinema.

Me

Not this time, Charles.

I hit send and pushed my head back as memories of my life with Charles began to flood my head. How did the time go on so fast? How did I go from that 20-year-old girl singing in a karaoke bar to the grown woman in the backseat of one of the lushest vehicles in the world?

Just like wine, Charles was waxing finer and finer by the day. He was completely bald now yet he'd never looked finer. He was doing well for himself at one of the biggest oil companies in the world and I knew he had a little daughter but that he was divorced...or did his wife die?, well I didn't care much. By my calculation, he was 34 years old now and he didn't look it one bit.

"We're here ma'am" I heard the chauffeur announce and I had to ask my staff and partners on the ZOOM call to hold to ask him what he'd said. "We've arrived at the location ma'am." He repeated with his head bowed like a toddler; but we knew better, he wasn't a toddler, he was a raging beast on the bed.

"Great, find a very good parking spot, I don't intend to stay here for too long," I informed him dryly before turning back to my iPad screen as I sadly informed them that the meeting had to be re-adjourned to the next day. They all made faces like they were sad and that they'd rather speak to me for much longer, but I knew they'd be dancing as soon as I ended the conference call.

I brought out my phone from my clutch and began to compose a text to Charles.

Me

I'm here. What next?

I hit send and waited for his response which came almost immediately.

Charlie

Seriously?!

You've never been to Radison?

Just ask someone to direct you to the penthouse.

Me

I've got a chain of restaurants and a few hotels in the country, what am I looking for, here in another man's establishment?

Charlie

Fair enough, Big Woman!

I want to be like you oo!

Anyways, please do hurry up, I don't want your cool glass of champagne running warm.

I wanted to tell him that I had no intention of dining and wining with him but then I caught my reflection in the mirror, and the attention to the details I paid to my look would only end up making me look stupid if I made such a mistake as to even type that. 'So what? Did I tear up a $2000 Manolo shoes just to come to sit and catch up? Or worse, get judged about what I did 10 years ago?'

Me

Now, we wouldn't want that, would we?

I rolled my eyes before hitting the send button as I got down from the car and made my way to the reception where I was quickly directed to the private elevator that led to the penthouse. One would think Charles owned the place judging by the warm reception which I was given, but knowing Charles, he probably tipped everyone there to have me impressed.

It wasn't until I got to the door of the penthouse that the strong feeling of guilt began to creep into my head once again and I couldn't fight the urge to turn around just as I was about to, I met Charles standing behind me like a tall glass of champagne.

"You're not going to pull another Cinderella on me, Jemima," he smiled, revealing those killer dimples of his, ", not with that beautiful dress of yours."

'Dang It' I thought.